Stability and change in religiousness during emerging adulthood.

Understanding the development of religiousness is an important endeavor because religiousness has been shown to be related to positive outcomes. The current study examined mean-level, rank-order, and individual-level change in females' religiousness during emerging adulthood. Genetic and environmental influences on religiousness and its change and stability were also investigated. Analyses were completed with an epidemiological study of 2 cohorts of twins: 1 assessed at ages 14 and 18 and a 2nd at 20 and 25. Mean levels of religiousness decreased significantly with age, while rank-order stability was high. Individual-level change was also evident. Analyses also supported the hypotheses that more change would occur in the younger cohort compared with the older cohort and that more change would occur in religious service attendance than the general index of religiousness. Twin analyses suggested that the heritability of religiousness increased with age, while the shared environmental influences decreased. For the younger cohort, change was genetic in origin, while stability was environmental. In the older cohort, change was influenced by nonshared environment and stability by both genes and family environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Genetic influences on the overlap between low IQ and antisocial behavior in young children.

The well-documented relation between the phenotypes of low IQ and childhood antisocial behavior could be explained by either common genetic influences or environmental influences. These competing explanations were examined through use of the Environmental Risk Longitudinal Twin Study 1994-1995 cohort (Moffitt & the E-Risk Study Team, 2002) of 1,116 twin pairs and their families. Children's IQ was assessed via individual testing at age 5 years. Mothers and teachers reported on children's antisocial behavior at ages 5 and 7 years. Low IQ was related to antisocial behavior at age 5 years and predicted relatively higher antisocial behavior scores at age 7 years when antisocial behavior at age 5 years was controlled. This association was significantly stronger among boys than among girls. Genetic influences common to both phenotypes explained 100% of the low IQ-antisocial behavior relation in boys. Findings suggest that specific candidate genes and neurobiological processes should be tested in relation to both phenotypes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in the genetic and environmental influences on childhood conduct disorder and adult antisocial behavior.

Sex differences in the genetic and environmental influences on childhood conduct disorder and adult antisocial behavior were examined in a large community sample of 6,383 adult male, female, and opposite-sex twins. Retrospective reports of childhood conduct disorder (prior to 18 years of age) were obtained when participants were approximately 30 years old, and lifetime reports of adult antisocial behavior (antisocial behavior after 17 years of age) were obtained 8 years later. Results revealed that either the genetic or the shared environmental factors influencing childhood conduct disorder differed for males and females (i.e., a qualitative sex difference), but by adulthood, these sex-specific influences on antisocial behavior were no longer apparent. Further, genetic and environmental influences accounted for proportionally the same amount of variance in antisocial behavior for males and females in childhood and adulthood (i.e., there were no quantitative sex differences). Additionally, the stability of antisocial behavior from childhood to adulthood was slightly greater for males than females. Though familial factors accounted for more of the stability of antisocial behavior for males than females, genetic factors accounted for the majority of the covariation between childhood conduct disorder and adult antisocial behavior for both sexes. The genetic influences on adult antisocial behavior overlapped completely with the genetic influences on childhood conduct disorder for both males and females. Implications for future twin and molecular genetic studies are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comparison of epidemiologic, histologic, and virologic studies on Hodgkin''s disease in western Kenya and Nagasaki, Japan

AIMS: The aim of the present study was to determine which medical variables were predictors of long-term behavioural/emotional outcome after surgical correction for congenital heart disease in infancy and childhood. METHODS: The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) was used to predict parent-reported behavioural/emotional problems in 125 10-15 year-old congenital heart disease children from: (1) biographical status (2) medical history (3) heart surgery (4) short-term post-operative course and (5) number of heart operations and (6) extra cardiac concomitant anomalies. RESULTS: Higher CBCL total problem scores at follow-up were associated with a greater number of heart operations and deep hypothermic circulatory arrest (< 22 degrees). 'Internalizing problems' were associated with a greater number of heart operations, deep hypothermic circulatory arrest, a short gestational age, low systemic oxygen saturation, and older age at surgical repair. 'Externalizing problems' were associated with a greater number of heart operations only. CONCLUSION: Several medical variables were significant predictors and can be used to identify those congenital heart disease children who are at risk of long-term behavioural/emotional maladjustment.     

Genetic and environmental bases of childhood antisocial behavior: A multi-informant twin study.

Genetic and environmental influences on childhood antisocial and aggressive behavior (ASB) during childhood were examined in 9- to 10-year-old twins, using a multi-informant approach. The sample (605 families of twins or triplets) was socioeconomically and ethnically diverse, representative of the culturally diverse urban population in Southern California. Measures of ASB included symptom counts for conduct disorder, ratings of aggression, delinquency, and psychopathic traits obtained through child self-reports, teacher, and caregiver ratings. Multivariate analysis revealed a common ASB factor across informants that was strongly heritable (heritability was .96), highlighting the importance of a broad, general measure obtained from multiple sources as a plausible construct for future investigations of specific genetic mechanisms in ASB. The best fitting multivariate model required informant-specific genetic, environmental, and rater effects for variation in observed ASB measures. The results suggest that parents, children, and teachers have only a partly "shared view" and that the additional factors that influence the "rater-specific" view of the child's antisocial behavior vary for different informants. This is the first study to demonstrate strong heritable effects on ASB in ethnically and economically diverse samples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Continuity and change in children's social maladjustment: A developmental behavior genetic study.

Two developmental models were used to study genetic and environmental mechanisms underlying continuity and change in children's maladjustment. The transmission model assumed that successive levels of functioning were causally linked and that earlier experiences or prior genetic influences affected later maladjustment. The liability model related continuity in problem behavior to stable underlying environmental or genetic factors. The analyses pertained on average to 436 pairs of full siblings, 119 pairs of half siblings, and 122 pairs of cousins for whom maternal ratings of problem behaviors were available at ages 4–6, 6–8, and 8–10. Nonshared environmental influences appeared to be most important for changes in children's problem behaviors and did not have significant effects on age-to-age continuity. To represent the genetic and shared environmental mechanisms underlying stability in problem behavior, the authors preffered liability models without time specific effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A longitudinal twin study of temperament and behavior problems: common genetic or environmental influences?

OBJECTIVES: To assess the longitudinal covariance between emotionality, activity, and sociability (EAS) temperamental traits and anxious/depressed behavior, attention problems, delinquent behavior, and aggressive behavior and to assess the significance of genetic and common environmental influences on the temperament and behavior relations. METHOD: Parental responses to the Child Behavior Checklist and the EAS Temperament Survey were collected from five national cohorts of Norwegian same-sex twins. The final sample consisted of 759 twin pairs aged 7 through 17 at 2-year follow-up. RESULTS: High emotionality predicted anxious/depressed behavior, attention problems, delinquent behavior, and aggressive behavior. The influence on delinquent and aggressive behavior was stronger in boys. Aggressive behavior was further predicted by high activity scores, especially in younger children. Significant genetic influence was found for the covariance between emotionality and attention problems and emotionality and aggressive behavior. CONCLUSION: Emotionality was the strongest temperamental predictor of behavior problems. The mechanisms involved in the associations between temperament and behavior problems appeared to differ with kind of behavior problems.     

The normative development of child and adolescent problem behavior.

The aim of this study was to identify normative developmental trajectories of parent-reported problems assessed with the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; T. M. Achenbach, 1991) in a representative sample of 2,076 children aged 4 to 18 years from the general population. The trajectories were determined by multilevel growth curve analyses on the CBCL syndromes in a longitudinal multiple birth-cohort sample that was assessed 5 times with 2-year intervals. Most syndromes showed a linear increase or decrease with age or a curvilinear trajectory, except for thought problems. Trajectories for most syndromes differed for boys versus girls, except those for withdrawn, social problems, and thought problems. These normative developmental trajectories provide information against which developmental deviance in childhood and adolescence can be detected. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sexual behavior in young adulthood: A population-based twin study.

Objective: With behavior genetic analyses of data from young adult twins, we evaluated theoretical perspectives that differentially emphasize biological dispositions, social/cultural factors, or universal pathways to explain individual differences in sexual behaviors. Design: We fit biometric sex limitation models to three aspects of sexual behavior reported by 4,925 Finnish twins ages 23-27. Main Outcome Measure: From a postal questionnaire, we obtained self-report information on initiation/abstinence of sexual intercourse, onset age, and number of sexual partners. Results: Genetic and non-shared environmental influences were significant for all three measures. There were trends for common environmental influences on initiation and, in females, age at first intercourse. Some differential effects in males and females were found. Results comparing onset age and number of partners among experienced twins from pairs concordant and discordant for initiation found genetic and environmental influences on initiation/abstinence overlapped those found for the other aspects of sexual behavior. Conclusions: These results document genetic variation in individual differences in sexual behavior of young adults. Incorporating genetic dispositions into integrated models of sexual behavior will facilitate more effective health promotion and risk taking intervention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Genetic analysis of drinking behavior in World War II veteran twins

The objective of the present study was to investigate longitudinal changes in drinking behaviors of adult male twins and model these changes as a function of genetic and environmental influences. Alcohol data available for World War II veteran twins, first surveyed in 1967-69 and followed up during 1983-85, were used to examine components of variability in measures of alcohol consumption. Multivariate biometric analysis of these data indicated 1) longitudinal stability of drinking behaviors in this cohort, 2) a significant contribution of genetic factors to the observed stability that accounted for more than 80% of the stable variation in frequency and in quantity of alcohol consumed per drinking occasion, and 3) evidence for a significant contribution of shared environmental influences to drinking of specific beverages (e.g., wine). The implications of these results for issues of health in the elderly are considered.     

Maternal Expressed Emotion Predicts Children's Antisocial Behavior Problems: Using Monozygotic-Twin Differences to Identify Environmental Effects on Behavioral Development.

If maternal expressed emotion is an environmental risk factor for children's antisocial behavior problems, it should account for behavioral differences between siblings growing up in the same family even after genetic influences on children's behavior problems are taken into account. This hypothesis was tested in the Environmental Risk Longitudinal Twin Study with a nationally representative 1994-1995 birth cohort of twins. The authors interviewed the mothers of 565 five-year-old monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs and established which twin in each family received more negative emotional expression and which twin received more warmth. Within MZ pairs, the twin receiving more maternal negativity and less warmth had more antisocial behavior problems. Qualitative interviews were used to generate hypotheses about why mothers treat their children differently. The results suggest that maternal emotional attitudes toward children may play a causal role in the development of antisocial behavior and illustrate how genetically informative research can inform tests of socialization hypotheses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The consequences of antisocial behavior in older male siblings for younger brothers and sisters.

The contribution of younger male and female siblings' conflict and involvement in deviant activities with their older brothers to younger siblings' adolescent adjustment problems was examined in the context of parenting. Ineffective parenting during younger siblings' childhood had no direct effects on adjustment but facilitated their exposure to older brothers' deviant peers and activities. The effect of sibling conflict on adjustment was mediated by younger siblings' coparticipation in deviant activities with their older brothers during adolescence. Early sibling conflict and coparticipation in deviant activities synergistically increased the risk for younger siblings' adolescent adjustment problems. These empirical relations held in the context of parental discipline of younger siblings during adolescence. Sibling relationships entail a set of iterative social processes that strongly influence risk for adolescent antisocial behavior, drug use, sexual behavior, and traumatic experience. Variations in sibling influence were observed conditional on the gender combination of the sibling pair and on sibling age differences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Child temperaments, maternal differential behavior, and sibling relationships.

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the influence of two nonshared family environmental components—maternal differential behavior and sibling temperaments—on the sibling relationship of school-age children. Forty mothers and their same-sex children (20 pairs of boys and 20 pairs of girls) participated. In order to examine the associations of temperament and maternal differential behavior with the quality of sibling interactions, mothers were observed in triadic interactions with their two children. On a separate occasion the sibling dyad was observed interacting in the same contexts. The mothers also provided temperament ratings of each of their children's levels of activity, emotional intensity, and persistence. The results indicated that high activity, high emotional intensity, and low persistence levels in both older and younger children were associated with increased agonism between sisters, whereas high activity and low persistence levels for younger brothers were associated with more agonistic behavior among brothers. An imbalance of maternal behavior that favored the younger child was generally associated with lower rates of verbalizations and prosocial and agonistic behavior directed by siblings to one another. The observations of the mother–sibling triadic and sibling dyadic interactions also revealed consistency in the within-family environments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

School performance and genetic and environmental variance in antisocial behavior at the transition from adolescence to adulthood.

Antisocial behavior increases in adolescence, particularly among those who perform poorly in school. As adolescents move into adulthood, both educational attainment and the extent to which antisocial behavior continues have implications for adolescents’ abilities to take on constructive social roles. The authors used a population-representative longitudinal twin study to explore how links among genetic and environmental influences at ages 17 and 24 may be implicated in the developmental processes involved. At age 17, expression of both genetic and nonshared environmental vulnerabilities unique to antisocial behavior was greater among those with low GPA than among those with higher GPA. This suggested that maintenance of high GPA buffered the impact of both genetic and environmental influences encouraging antisocial behavior. When GPA was high, both genetic and environmental influences involved in both traits encouraged good school performance and restrained antisocial behavior. At age 24, however, correlated family environmental influences drove the association between educational attainment and antisocial behavior. Antisocial characteristics involving school performance and educational attainment that transcend generations may slot individuals into social categories that restrict opportunities and reinforce antisocial characteristics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Genetic and environmental influences on antisocial behavior: A meta-analysis of twin and adoption studies.

A meta-analysis of 51 twin and adoption studies was conducted to estimate the magnitude of genetic and environmental influences on antisocial behavior. The best fitting model included moderate proportions of variance due to additive genetic influences (.32), nonadditive genetic influences (.09), shared environmental influences (.16), and nonshared environmental influences (.43). The magnitude of familial influences (i.e., both genetic and shared environmental influences) was lower in parent-offspring adoption studies than in both twin studies and sibling adoption studies. Operationalization, assessment method, zygosity determination method, and age were significant moderators of the magnitude of genetic and environmental influences on antisocial behavior, but there were no significant differences in the magnitude of genetic and environmental influences for males and females. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Etiology and measurement of relational aggression: A multi-informant behavior genetic investigation.

Although the study of relational aggression is gaining attention in the literature, little is known about the underlying causes of this behavior and the relative validity of various informants. These issues were addressed in a sample of 1,981 6- to 18-year-old twin pairs (36% female, 34% male, 30% opposite-sex). Relational aggression was assessed via maternal and self-report using a structured interview. Univariate models estimated genetic and environmental influences by informant and examined evidence for gender differences. A psychometric model combined data from both informants to estimate etiologic influences that were both common to the informants and informant specific. In both sexes, the latent variable reflecting the mother’s and child’s shared perception of the child’s relational aggression was substantially influenced by both additive genetic (63%) and shared environmental (37%) influences, although this latent variable accounted for much greater variance in the maternal report (66%) than it did in the youth report (9%). In addition, informant-specific additive genetic and shared environmental influences were found only for the youth report, with all remaining variance in the mother’s report attributed to nonshared environmental influences. Results are discussed in the context of measuring relational aggression and the importance of multiple informants. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Factors associated with continuity and changes in disruptive behavior patterns between childhood and adolescence

The relationships between disruptive behaviors in middle childhood (7 to 9 years) and conduct disorder in adolescence (14 to 16 years) were studied in a birth cohort of New Zealand children. Latent class analysis suggested strong behavioral continuity, with children showing early disruptive behaviors having odds of adolescent conduct disorder that were over 16 times higher than children who did not display early disruptive behavior. Nonetheless, in the region of 12% of children showed a discontinuous history, with 5% of children showing an early onset of conduct problems and later remission while 7% showed later onset conduct problems. Children showing discontinuous histories of behavior problems came from backgrounds in which levels of risk were intermediate between those of children who showed a persistent pattern of conduct problems and those who were consistently nonproblem children. Peer factors played an influential role in behavioral change in adolescence, with individuals showing late onset of conduct problems having high rates of affiliation with delinquent peers but those showing remission of problem behaviors in adolescence having relatively low rates of such affiliations.     

Developmental structure of genetic influences on antisocial behavior across childhood and adolescence.

It is necessary to determine if causal influences on developing antisocial behavior change with age to guide both research and theory on its origins. The extent to which the same genetic factors influence antisocial behavior across 4–17 years of age was estimated using 2,482 sibling pairs of varying genetic relatedness. Assessments of antisocial behavior by mothers (4–9 years), mothers and youth (10–13 years), and youth (14–17 years) reflected the changing validity of informants across development. Genetic influences on antisocial behavior at 14–17 years were entirely shared with those on antisocial behavior at 10–13 years according to both informants. Genetic influences on antisocial behavior at 14–17 years were distinct from those at 4–9 years, however. These age differences in genetic influences cannot be fully distinguished from informant differences across age, but the present findings indicate that youth reported to be persistently antisocial during childhood and adolescence are influenced by one set of genetic factors influencing parent-report conduct problems in childhood and a second set of genetic influences on youth-reported delinquency that come into play around the time of the pubertal transition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maternal depression and maternal treatment of siblings as predictors of child psychopathology.

Maternal treatment of sibling pairs with affectively ill and well mothers was examined longitudinally in relation to child psychiatric status. Mothers and children in 77 families (34 unipolar, 16 bipolar, and 27 control mothers) were observed in interaction across early, middle, and late childhood and early adolescence. Interaction was assessed on dimensions of maternal engagement and critical-irritable behavior. The study examined the relative contributions of maternal depression, the quality of maternal treatment, and differential treatment of siblings to each child's psychiatric status. By maternal report, older siblings' symptoms were predicted by maternal bipolar or unipolar illness; younger siblings' symptoms were predicted by lower maternal engagement and higher maternal critical-irritable behavior in early childhood, in addition to maternal affective illness. For the younger sibling, persistent patterns of maternal treatment were also related to both maternal and child reports of problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of fathers on daughters' age at menarche: A genetically and environmentally controlled sibling study.

Girls growing up in homes without their biological fathers tend to go through puberty earlier than their peers. Whereas evolutionary theories of socialization propose that this relation is causal, it could arise from environmental or genetic confounds. To distinguish between these competing explanations, the authors used a genetically and environmentally controlled sibling comparison design to examine the effects of differential exposure to family disruption/father absence in a community sample of sister pairs. As specified by evolutionary causal theories, younger sisters had earlier menarche than their older sisters in biologically disrupted families (n = 68) but not biologically intact families (n = 93). This effect was superseded, however, by a large moderating effect of paternal dysfunction. Younger sisters from disrupted families who were exposed to serious paternal dysfunction in early childhood attained menarche 11 months earlier than either their older sisters or other younger sisters from disrupted families who were not exposed to such dysfunction. These data suggest that early exposure to disordered paternal behavior, followed by family disruption and residential separation from the father, can lead to substantially earlier menarche. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)